1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pad for a garment, a garment including such a pad and a manufacturing method for the pad.
2. Background Art
Padded garments are used for a number of reasons. The most important objective is the cushioning of impact forces, for example to avoid injuries in sports involving frequent and heavy body contacts such as rugby, American football, ice hockey, basketball, boxing etc. In addition, the body must be protected against injuries caused by ground contact, for example in sports like volleyball, show jumping, mountain biking, skiing, ice or roller skating, motor bicycle riding etc. Furthermore, padded garments are useful to avoid injuries of the elderly, for example to avoid a femoral neck fracture, which presents a major risk for older women.
If cushioning was the only objective, parts or even the complete garment could be made from a homogenous cushioning material. However, other functional aspects are relevant as well such as wearing comfort, breathability, weight and flexibility to adapt to the changing shape of the body so that movements of the wearer are impaired as little as possible. Any padded garment is therefore always a compromise between these conflicting design objectives.
In the prior art, a number of approaches are disclosed for providing a pad. For example U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,325 discloses a pad consisting of a multitude of separate resilient elements joined to a stretchable substrate. While this design improves the flexibility and air permeability of the pad, it has a reduced lifetime since the individual and separate elements may easily become detached from the substrate. This is a catastrophic failure, since it leads to a complete loss of the cushioning function in the section of the pad, where the lost element was arranged.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,446 discloses a pad to be arranged in a pocket of protective underwear. The pad has a rounded shape and comprises a number of slits cut through the cushioning material. However, from the figures of this document, it is apparent, that the slits are effectively closed unless the pad is stretched so that only a very limited amount of air and humidity can pass through. As a result, the pad of U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,446 does not provide an acceptable wearing comfort, in particular if a garment comprises a plurality of such pads.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,479,269 also discloses a pad to be inserted into a pocket of a garment, in particular of a pair of trousers. The pad comprises first and second components on opposite sides, which are interleaved and made from materials of different hardness. Again, the closed structure of the pad impairs the exchange of air and humidity and thus the performance of an athlete.
U.S. Pub. No. 2006/0179545 discloses another pad to be inserted into a pocket of a pair of trousers. The pad is comparatively dense and comprises only tiny perforations for the exchange of air and humidity.
As a result, none of the pad designs known from the prior art present the above mentioned ideal compromise between the various design objectives for a perfect pad. It is therefore the problem underlying the present invention to provide a pad, a garment and a manufacturing method, which at least partly overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art mentioned above.